This Sunday’s Evensong at Bradford Cathedral will feature the sopranos of the Cathedral Consort whilst the choristers, altos, tenors and basses are away on a ‘Safari’ Evensong visit to St Peter’s Church, Rawdon.
Soprano-only Evensongs mean that we are able to choose music from a plethora of upper-voices only repertoire, and this Sunday we have chosen Geoffrey Burgon’s beautiful Nunc dimittis.
Composed in 1979, you may recognise the piece from the credits of the BBC’s classic spy drama ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, adapted from John le Carré’s 1974 novel of the same title.
Anthony Gray, who will be conducting the sopranos on Sunday, writes:
“We are pairing Burgon’s Nunc dimittis with Mark Blatchly’s ever-joyful Magnificat in C. This Magnificat (unlike other settings) is not a complete set of canticles, as it does not have a Nunc dimittis to go with it. Similarly, Burgon’s Nunc dimittis does not have a Magnificat, as it was primarily written specifically as part of the score for the series.
“The Consort have loved singing Blatchly’s Magnificat for several years, so we have decided to pair these two, self-sufficient pieces of music together to form a full set of canticles. It also comes after a request from one of our sopranos, for whom the Burgon is her favourite piece of music!”
Join us on Sunday 16th June at 3:30pm in Bradford Cathedral to hear this beautiful piece as part of a soprano-only programme.